July 2, 2012

U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
401 F Street NW, Suite 312
Washington, DC 20001-2728

CFA Staffers

I’m not sure who best to ask my question so I thought it would be best to leave it a little broad, hopefully that’s alright.  My primary reason for writing is that I have a blogger’s interest in the Kryptos sculpture installed in 1990 in the courtyard of the CIA’s new headquarters building and was hoping to find out more information about the efforts to place/develop art for the CIA.  I was encouraged after looking through your website that it’s not usually necessary to file a FOIA request!

#1  Could I have copies of the materials leading up to Kryptos being chosen and anything to do with it afterwards?  (Within reason of course, I know you folks are probably pretty busy)

#2  Do you have any inventories of art associated with the new building renovations around the time of the Kryptos instillation (1990)?  I’ve always wondered if there was other art pieces placed at the same time that may give contextual clues to help solve the last portion of ciphertext.

#3  Is there any good resource showing or describing all of the artwork in the CIA?  I was thinking there must be books published or websites for it.  Really, anything with pictures and descriptions would just be fantastic.

All these years we’ve focused so much on the ciphering/coding side of this sculpture that I can help but think we’ve lost sight of the art of it.

Thank you for your time!  I can guarantee everything you send will be openly shared online in the hopes of sparking some new ideas.

 

Thank you again,

–Kryptosfan